COLLINGWOOD will be without Daniel Wells on Friday night, electing to rest the injury-prone star with an eye on getting him through the season.
Wells played the past fortnight for the Magpies in the AFL after three games in the VFL following a pre-season battle with hamstring and Achilles problems.
The 255-game veteran made only 10 senior appearances in his first season at the Holden Centre last year because of persistent calf issues and later a quad-related setback.
Coach Nathan Buckley confirmed the decision to "manage" Wells after the 33-year-old didn't train on Wednesday.
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"The plan was to play the two (games), miss this week, then play another two into the bye, best-case scenario," Buckley told reporters.
"So he's given us exactly what we needed and what we thought we'd get in those first couple of weeks, so the long-term plan to get him right for the second half of the year is on schedule at the moment.
"We're going to stay the course on this and look at the medium-term picture, I suppose, and make sure we get Daniel available for as many games as we possibly can throughout the season."
Buckley listed Collingwood's six-day turnaround between matches and a second straight match at Etihad Stadium among the reasons for resting Wells this week.
The Magpies are yet to decide whether Wells could be managed again later in the season, on top of their round 13 bye.
"It's probably an opportunity to get a little more work into him outside of match practice as well and Wellsy's bought in on this," the coach said.
"The onus goes back onto him now to do some cross-training and to be able to continue to build his fitness and his resilience.
"We just didn't get enough access to him last year and when we do we're better for it, so we've just got to manage him as well as we possibly can."
Key forward Ben Reid (Achilles) will return after three weeks out and defender Brayden Maynard (ankle) could also be back depending on how he recovers from training.
Collingwood was already going to be without Alex Fasolo for at least six weeks because of an ankle syndesmosis injury suffered in his first AFL game of the year on Saturday night.
The multiple absences and doubt around Maynard's fitness could present an opportunity for midfielder Brayden Sier – fresh from 35 possessions in the VFL – to make a long-awaited debut.
The Magpies have lost five contests in a row against the Bulldogs, although all of them were decided by 21 points or fewer.
Luke Beveridge's men boast one of the competition's in-form onballers in Jack Macrae, who is averaging 40 possessions (23 contested) and 11 clearances in the past three rounds.
Whether Buckley chooses to tag Macrae is one of the mysteries going into the game, given the way Tom Mitchell and Dayne Zorko fired this season without one against Collingwood.
"(Macrae)'s a very good player, (Marcus) Bontempelli's a very good player (and Toby) McLean's been going through the midfield as well," Buckley said.
"They play as a unit, the Dogs, so we've got to see them as such – it's a team game – but there are clearly influential individuals on each side.
"We've got a few ourselves, but we do have plans on how we limit the effectiveness of the opposition.
"Steele (Sidebottom) had 38 touches last week and it was probably his least effective game for the year … I've been a big advocate of saying, 'It's not just about the touches, it's about the impact'."
